WINSTED >> The firing of former finance director Henry Centrella could possibly open the door for the town of Winsted to combine its finance department with that of Winchester Public Schools. However, the current interim finance director warned the town that it has much bigger priorities, and that such a move would be inadvisable.

Centrella was fired on Jan. 17 after waiving his right to a pre-termination hearing that day. According to the certified letter sent by town manager Dale Martin to Centrella, the long-time finance director would be sacked "based upon our internal investigation and forensic audit," which revealed numerous troubling facts. The issues also involved Winsted's school system, which faces $3 million in unpaid bills -- which, according to superintendent of schools Thomas Danehy, went unpaid due to Centrella's actions.

The preliminary findings, according to the letter, included specific claims that Centrella made unauthorized fund transfers, stored town funds in his desk, failed to notify Martin or the Board of Selectmen of his unauthorized transfers, failed to account for missing money and failed to cooperate with BlumShapiro on the 2010-11 audit. Centrella declined to discuss his status with the media.

Additionally, Martin said during the Jan. 22 Board of Selectmen meeting that $1.2 million in bills accrued by the Board of Education over the 2011-12 fiscal year had not been paid after Centrella said he would not sign off on the payments. The bills were paid out of the 2012-13 budget, Martin said, adding that the bills were not paid in the 2011-12 fiscal year due to cash flow issues. Martin received the entire email exchange from Winchester superintendent of schools Thomas Danehy the day of the meeting.

"We are busy investigating that," said Martin.

Wall has already taken several measures to remedy these incidents and ensure that they do not happen again. One such measure has been to suggest that the Board of Selectmen forms a subcommittee to review all the bills which are to be paid. However, none of the Selectmen volunteered to serve on such a subcommittee.

Second Selectman Candy Perez said that the money for the bills had been transferred, dispelling the notion that there was no plan to pay the bills. Perez pointed out that after the Democratic supermajority took office, Centrella presented a list of all the accounts that would be tapped to make the town whole against the minimum budget requirement, which would require a total of $1.3 million in transfers, remarking that "The $1.3 million to pay that was transferred, with the finance manager sitting directly behind us."

"I'm not sure exactly why that money was held by the former finance manager," Perez continued, "but it was never anybody's intent to direct him to do that."

Centrella's departure after 32 years could possibly open up the chance for the town to merge its financial operations with the public school system's finance department, as was proposed by several audience members. The topic had been hotter in previous years, when Winchester Public Schools faced accounting problems and delayed audits. Eventually, Winchester voters approved a charter change which would allow a merger of the school and town finance departments. However, given her previous experience, Wall warned that "you won't save any money by doing this."

"The financial reporting on the schools is very intense," Wall said. "That's why they have so many people."

Notably, Wall continued, school and municipal finance operations have very different needs. School business managers, as an example, spend much more time working on grants and compliance issues than town finance managers.

"It's not apples and apples," said Wall. "It's fairly close, like fruits, but they're different animals."

Plainville was one such district which consolidated its operations, and Wall noted that the joint financial office has worked well so far. However, according to Wall, Plainville "they did it not to save money, but because they want to enhance communication."

Wall said that Plainville was a special case, because their superintendent of schools and town manager have their offices on the same floor of the same building. While Wall did not work in Plainville -- the former finance director for Plainville's school system moved to Regional School District 7's business office -- she stated that a combined finance office would not work in her previous post due to the history of hostility between their municipal government and school administration.

Wall did praise Winchester Public Schools business manager Nadine Savage, remarking that "she came in and hit the ground running." Wall and Savage have talked already, discussing their shared experiences and emphasis on investing in their own education, but while Wall said Savage is capable of handling municipal financial operations as well, she may not be interested in doing so.

"I think it can work," Wall said, "but there really aren't that many towns that do that."